Monthly Archives: February 2016

We’ve started a new game here in Kansas City called Jumbo Yahtzee! It is played just like regular game but with giant dice in the Primrose billiards room. Our residents have five giant dice that they throw in order to obtain the desired score.

We all took turns and it took over an hour to get through the game. Many of us tried over and over before we were able to score a Yahtzee! Jumbo Yahtzee builds math skills, helps strengthen arm muscles, and exercises the brain as well.

Those who can’t stand to throw the dice can always pull up a chair to the table and get right to it! It was a lot of fun and everyone had a great time. We will be keeping this game on the calendar for the future months. We are looking to strive for the perfect Yahtzee score!

We started the new year off strong with an incredible opportunity to welcome the wind ensemble from Illinois State College to Primrose. One of our residents, Marion, was a graduate of Illinois State college. She studied there are received her degree in education. Marion also has a great love of music and plays the piano here at Primrose anytime she can.

The ensemble had scheduled a tour though the Kansas City area and once they found out that Marion lived here they asked to play for our residents. Early on a Monday morning, thirty members of the band filled up our dining room and gave a fantastic performance! They played for about forty minutes and all they asked for in return was lunch! They even pitched in and helped put our dining room back in order when they were done.

Every student was grateful and loved getting time to interact with the residents. They finished their performance off with the original Star Wars song, and to make Marian feel like she was still a part of the college, they had her conduct! She loved it and was smiling for hours afterwards! It was a true blessing to have them stop by and play for us.

Earl Calhoun’s wife, Evy, figures he’ll be around at least 10 more years. He’s already 100, and Evy Calhoun is basing her theory on her two previous marriages. Both of her husbands passed away after 26 years of matrimony. She and Earl have been together for 16 years, and they live at Primrose Retirement Communities in Mansfield, OH.

Earl recently celebrated his 100th birthday. He has survived a stroke, heart surgery, and a nasty fall to make it to the century mark.

“Why would I complain? I’ve stayed around for 100 years,” he said.

A Pennsylvania native, Earl lived in Lancaster, OH, for more than 60 years before moving to Mansfield last year to be closer to his son, Jerry. As recently as 2013, when Earl was 97, he was playing golf once a week.

Earl’s 100th birthday proved to be a special occasion. Close friends and family from five states helped him celebrate with a formal dinner at Chinatown Restaurant. After dinner, Dick Taylor drove Earl and Evy back to Primrose in his restored 1928 Model A Ford, a car just like the one Earl once owned.

“That was a complete surprise,” Evy said. “To walk out and see that car; his eyes got big,” she added.

Earl married first wife, Jean Laughlin, in 1940 when he was 24. He spent most of his career working at Sears, which was how he wound up in Ohio. He was transferred to Lancaster in 1950. He ended up spending more than 40 years with Sears, earning a promotion to manager, before retiring in 1980.

Before that, Earl served in the Army during World War II. He was stationed in the Philippines, and worked with the teletype machine as part of communications group.

“The Philippines was all right, but I got yellow jaundice,” he said.

Earl and Evy knew each other when their respective families wintered in Arizona.

“We were both alone,“ Evy said. “It came so easy. It was magic like,” she added. Evy describes her third husband as a thoughtful, kind man with a wonderful disposition.

Earl had two sons, Jerry and Jeff, with his first wife.

“You can’t do any more than set a great example. That’s what dad’s always done for us,“ Jerry said. “He works hard. He’s honest. That’s the way he raised us.”

It’s no wonder residents at Primrose Retirement Community in Decatur are smiling and laughing…even when it’s cold outside!

Resident Sid Smith, who moved to Primrose in November of 2015, is glad he decided to come to Primrose before winter. He says “the friendliness of the staff, and that any staff member will help you with what you need is a real advantage.”

In June of 2014, Sid lost his wife of 60 ½ years. “I loved her more than anything, and there is no replacing her.” After her death, Sid didn’t know what the next chapter of his life might bring. He stayed in his home and many aspects of life became more challenging.

At Primrose Sid has found a new life with friends to share meals and other activities, such as concerts and trips. “I’m in love again, you know” Sid remarks, and gives one of his new friends a hug.

A retired engineer at Caterpillar and a veteran Sergeant for the Marine Corp, Sid understands why at Primrose we say “this is living.” It took him just one week living in the Primrose respite suite before he decided that Primrose was where he wanted to stay. “I knew I needed what Primrose had to offer, Sid comments, “and since moving in, I’ve loved every minute.”

In December, Primrose of Lancaster put together a group called “The Welcome Wagon Committee” which consists of five resident ambassadors in our community.

The purpose of the Welcome Wagon Committee is to make all of the new residents that move into our community feel welcome. The committee puts together a small basket of items that they think each new resident will need or enjoy and then they get together to take the basket to them. Each ambassador introduces themselves and tells them everything there is to know about our beautiful community.

The Welcome Wagon Committee spends a next week introducing new residents to other residents and staff. They also invite them to sit at their table during meals, and to a favorite activity of theirs. They also lend their support when new residents are sad or scared about their move. It makes a person feel really welcome to a strange place to have someone show you they really care, especially when and if your family does not live nearby.

We hold to a couple of our core values. Passion, relentless improvement and embracing change. We thrive every day to up hold these values and it shows.

We had a blast on New Year’s Eve! Even though we didn’t stay up until midnight that didn’t stop us from having a great time!

We invited Cool Breeze to play tunes and Carrie to bring back her photo booth. We enjoyed a little bit of dancing and singing along to old familiar tunes. Our theme was black and white. Some of our ladies got together a couple days ahead of time to decorate masks for us to wear. We celebrated with a champagne toast with strawberries and champagne cake.

Everyone loved the props and used them to have fun in the pictures. We had everything from New Year’s Eve hats, bobbles, shark hats, cowboy hats, crazy glasses, and signs. Most everyone went through the line twice to have their picture taken with all of their friends! We are already planning on what to do next year.

Some of the Sioux Falls Primrose residents decorated gingerbread homes made of graham crackers. It took some thought and time to come up with the specially decorated homes, and each were on display for visitors to see and to vote for their favorite.

Did you know that the gingerbread house has nothing to do with the Christmas holiday? Children’s story writers, the Brothers Grimm, made them famous in the very popular fairy tale “Hansel & Gretel”. The story features a gingerbread house that some children nibble on before an evil witch catches and imprisons them.

Our residents had a great time decorating the gingerbread homes and eating some of the candy while working so hard on their houses. Virgil said he was happy that he wasn’t building an actual house, because it was hard work!